Infiltration characteristics of lateritic vadose zones: Field experiments and modeling

•Impacts of cultivation practices on the infiltration process of lateritic soils are investigated.•Infiltration models are assessed for simulating infiltration behavior at plot and field scales.•Swartzendruber model gives best estimates of saturated hydraulic conductivity.•Swartzendruber, Brutsaert and Kostiakov-Lewis models show best fitting ability.•Infiltration characteristics of lateritic soils are greatly affected by cultivation practices.